Categories

Archives

Vinyl Wednesday: Aerosmith – Greatest Hits

Standard

This week’s pick is a recent addition to the collection. I have been looking for a copy of Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits (1980 – Columbia Records) record for a little while now and I’ve even passed on a few of them when I found them in stores in Columbus and Cleveland. Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits is a compilation of their best tunes (obviously that’s subjective) from before their early-90’s resurgence. This album is full of goodies and it won’t disappoint even the casual Aerosmith fan like myself.

I got into this album maybe a year or so ago, probably right before I landed my most recent job in Cleveland. I was looking for something that had the hits of Aerosmith’s younger, more wild days after I remembered having a greatest hits collection of theirs in my youth. It was a CD with a blue cover and it was likely the Big Ones compilation. Since I liked that album I decided this would be a good place to start over again and I began streaming this album in its place.

The cover of this album is super simple and that’s probably why I love it so much. Just a big, red, bold statement. It says, “Hey! We are Aerosmith. Listen to our noise.” and it says it well. The gigantic logo is so smooth and dreamy. Riding along those wings would be perfect for a trip into the 70s drug-filled rock scene. The type at the top of the jacket is this slab-serif that feels both out of place and perfectly in-line with the music and the times.

The back cover follows the same format as the front. The rest of the huge logo is shown and some song titles (in a thin slab-serif) and liner notes are added. None of it take away from the power of that logo, though.

The record is a standard black vinyl with a typical red/yellow Columbia Records label. Nothing fancy but it works so well here.

To say I am a fan of Aerosmith is an over statement. To say I like this album would be a bit of an understatement. It’s an odd feeling for me to enjoy some of a bands music but not all of it. Generally I go all-in with a band and their discography but with Aerosmith… well, that is certainly not the case. I love the sleazy, manic, bluesy cock-rock that is contained on this album but I don’t care enough about the band to seek out the records individually. Yes, I do have a soft spot for their record Get A Grip but that’s truly where my Aerosmith allegiance ends.

If you get a chance to pick one of these albums up for cheap then do it. I grabbed mine for $6 at a small-town record shop. Sure, it’s crackly as all hell and it may even skip once or twice but I’d gladly take this copy than a $30 reissue.

Also, the video below isn’t the audio from this album but the rendition of “Dream On” is just too good not to share. Enjoy!